Death of a Salesman: Foil 2 key examples

In Willy’s earliest memories, Bernard serves as foil to Biff’s impressive athletic and interpersonal abilities. The “anemic” neighbor plays the role of laughingstock, repeatedly dismissed for his bookish diligence and rule-following conformity.  Willy ignores Bernard’s appeals to study and even predicts Biff’s future advantage over his neighbor. Dashing, physically attractive, and self-assured, Biff starts out with the apparent upper hand.

Willy’s visit to Charley’s business, however, shows how drastically the tables have turned. The exchange with his neighbor’s son calls attention to the sharp reversal of fortunes over the intervening decades. The two characters have more than changed places: Biff is now a washed-up local celebrity while Bernard is a talented lawyer litigating a Supreme Court case. Biff’s distant Ebbets Field performance wilts in the face of Bernard’s glory, and to the point where Willy must pathetically inflate his son’s credentials to keep up appearances.

This contrast of fates sets up a case of charisma eclipsed by intellect. Biff, unwilling to study for Mr. Birnbaum’s test and overly reliant on his good looks, has lost his place to Bernard’s studiousness. In this tale of two neighbors, the play exposes the limits of personality in a world that increasing values educational attainments and professional qualifications. Formerly mocked as a “worm” but now representing the face of success, Bernard offers yet another instance of a “smart cooky” who gets ahead.

Despite their antagonism, the feuding pair shares the same set of anxieties. Like Willy, Biff feels compelled to fill the mold of the successful, self-made man. He tells Happy that “I suddenly get the feeling, my God, I’m not getting’ anywhere!” Biff betrays the same restlessness as his father, who admits an urge to make something of his life.  peaking to his brother in his backyard, Willy himself confesses in remarkably similar terms: “a man can’t go out the way he came in, Ben, a man has got to add up to something.”  Father and son both long for opportunities that have been denied to them, and they express a deep disappointment in their middling prospects. They are characters who desire but cannot attain, and who are both pressured by the tyranny of aspiration.

Miller’s play leads its characters toward markedly different endings: its conclusion juxtaposes Biff’s moment of clarity with Willy’s ultimate act of self-delusion. By the close of the story, Biff has come to accept his worthlessness in the new American economy. “Pop!  I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!” he yells to his father in Act 2. After a dismally unsuccessful meeting with his former employer, Bill Oliver, Biff has come to terms with economic hopelessness.  But where his son realizes that these economic aspirations are running only on fumes, Willy resolves to cling even harder to it:

WILLY (turning on him now in an uncontrolled outburst): I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!

Cite this Quote

Willy not only rejects Biff’s declaration but goes so far as to re-inflate himself with newfound hope, convincing himself that “the boy is going to be magnificent!” Hoping to support his son with his future business, Willy even kills himself to earn insurance money. To the play’s bitter end, Willy is still unable to recognize the doomed futility of the American Dream.